Well, spring is here and the time to test out the results of post-season analysis is upon us. Like many, I prefer to use spring 7 on 7 as a means to accelerate growth and decision making in a team's regular season menu of offense. However, unlike many, I prefer to not be so vanilla; the reasoning here is that I believe kids need to get better at the kinds of patterns in the "crunch time" of a season. Further, it allows for practice on offensive adjustments that are made each off season. Clients know that one of the first things they receive is a detail of these changes.

If the system is put together well enough, there should be no problem in creating these variations. Here are a handful that have been great thus far:

"7" in front of SPOT:

Previously known as CUBE in older publications, I changed it to SPOT because it just made more sense, as it stands for SPEED IN WITH AN OUTSIDE TWO. With the Raider navigation tag, the QB goes from the 7 if the corner triggers, to the backside.

SAIL

SAIL stands for "7 After Inside Leverage." From condensed sets, it has been very good vs. pattern-reading coverage techniques.

SLANT from condensed split

Watching the Patriots/ Chiefs playoff game (writeup is HERE), several examples of simple reads giving the defense fits because of matchups. Here, the defense is best advised to play a shell coverage, in which the M would be compromised if he bumps too far with the motion.

Bunch-Motion to Empty

It isn't easy for a defense to align to bunch and adjust to motion on the bunch side. With no change in normal pattern structures for the QB or receivers, having one pattern strong and one weak can provide simple formulae for the offense, yet complicated arithmetic for the defense.

After posting these images, I realized they are all some form of no-backs. Are all the adjustments we made of this nature? Of course not. They were randomly selected. However, an emphasis on these kinds of formations in skeleton work can provide a springboard for the understanding of protections/ numbers the QB must have.